Charleston Farmhouse and the Bloomsbury Group
Join us on Wednesday 12 May for an evening of discussion celebrating Charleston Farmhouse and the Bloomsbury Group. The talk will focus on the history of farmhouse; the historic living museum to the decorative arts, nestled deep in the Sussex countryside that became the home of Bloomsbury group artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant in 1916. Over the following 50 years, with the help of their friends Virginia Woolf, EM Forster, Roger Fry and many more they transformed Charleston from an unremarkable seventeenth century farmhouse into a masterpiece of interior design and modernist experimentation.
Darren Clarke, Rausing Head of Collections, Research and Exhibitions at Charleston will begin by introducing us to the story of the farmhouse and its making. He has curated several exhibitions, including Post-Impressionist Living: The Omega Workshops (2019), which examined Roger Fry’s vision for the Workshops — to bring the Post-Impressionist aesthetic into the home. Charleston Farmhouse embodies that living ideal; a place where art and design merge and live harmoniously. Darren Clarke expands on these ideas in this short video, below.
For our Charleston talk, Dr Clarke will be joined by Annie Sloan and Molly Mahon, both of whom have a strong connection to Charleston and the artworks of the Bloomsbury group. Sharing how Charleston's creativity continues today and the ways it has inspired her own design practice, Annie Sloan will discuss her collaboration with Charleston which has seen her create three distinctive Chalk Paint™ colours. Her profound admiration for the beautiful treasure trove of the decorative arts is evident in the new paint colours, each of which is inspired by the exuberant and decorative interior schemes of the Farmhouse. The collaboration was a dream come true for Annie — watch this informative clip to explore some of Annie’s favourite rooms and design features of Charleston.
Just as the Bloomsbury group covered every surface of Charleston’s interiors, in the last issue of Selvedge — Issue 99 Home — we examined every surface of the home. As well as looking at hand-painted Chinese wallpaper and the magic of carpets, we reflect on the home as a place where, especially in recent times, we feel safe, we undertake work of all sorts, and where we simply do as we please and find creative expression.
Book tickets for our talk on the event page: Charleston Farmhouse, Virtual Event with Annie Sloan, Molly Mahon and Darren Clarke
Read more about the Charleston Farmhouse and the Bloomsbury Group in Selvedge Issue 99 Home.